Well it is Tuesday morning and I’m off early this morning as I have a doctors appointment in St. Catharines at 9:45am and it’s about a three and a half hour drive.

As you can see it is a little cool hear this morning and lots of frost as I head out, I have a yearly check up with the surgeon that did my cancer surgery and for once a year we always try to be in the area. We got thrown off this year because we crossed into Canada about 3-4 weeks earlier than we had expected, so when I booked this appointment last fall mid May seemed perfect, now not so much. Dr. Jeff says all is good and I need to book for about a year for my next check up…now off for an espresso with Gino and a little catch up before I head off to pick up some things in Beamsville.

Gino is well and busy as always, he and Marlese own and operate an auto body repair shop in St. Catharines for the past forty years and have been friends for about twenty years. He also always has the espresso machine on with fresh ground espresso beans, some days the shop smells more like a coffee shop than an auto body shop…just saying.

A quick stop in Beamsville, I still rent some warehouse space here for the business, and need a few tools and a couple of items for the coach, so a quick hi to Bob and I’m off to Costco to fulfill the shopping list that Miss Laurie sent me off with.

Costco at noon hour what could go wrong, well it was obviously a busier day there than I had suspected, my list was short and sweet but the crowds were heavier than I expected, and of course the sample stations were open so crowds of grazers blocked the isles, but I persevered and completed my list with a couple of extra treats that were on sale. A quick hot dog (you just can’t beat $1.50 for a hotdog and pop) and I’m off to pick up our mail and drop off some items in Stoney Creek at Stephen and Karen’s.

Miss Karen was home so my quick drop and run took a little longer than expected, Laurie has given her Passat Wagon to her nephew and I had the ownership and some paperwork to drop off, as well as our mail to pick up, so add a little visit time and with a three hour drive ahead of me it was time to get back on the road and head for Lake Huron.

The drive back was uneventful but most of it is over two lane county roads, and while reasonably straight once past Kitchener highway #8 takes me through a number of small villages as well as Cambridge which is an amalgamation of three smaller towns Galt, Hespler, and Preston so now it’s a sprawling city with streets running on many different angles but with not much rush hour traffic I am soon on the open roads of Perth County in beautiful farmland and with all the land being tilled it reminds me of the home farm and spring planting, only difference is the size of the equipment. And other that a few large pieces of equipment being moved along the roadway it was a very scenic ride back to the coach.

Now keep in mind when we travel in the coach we only move about 300 kilometres a day (200 miles) so I have covered over two days worth of travel in only a day and still made it home to go out for dinner with Susan and Robert who are celebrating their anniversary with us in Goderich a perfect end to my endurance test earlier…. Continue reading “A Seven Hour Drive” →

This is is a big weekend here in Ontario the first long weekend, the unofficial start to summer, and in the camping world it is the the start of the season, the weather can vary from snow to sunny and hot. The only thing for sure is every campground will be full as every one gets out for this weekend, so on Friday night as we made our rounds here are campers in touques and parkas sitting around the campfire with cocktail in hand ahh as a very dear friend would have said “great day to be Canadian” and how true it is. After all this holiday weekend is in celebration of Queen Victoria, from our British heritage, and was celebrated on the closest weekend to May 24th and has turned into the May 2-4 weekend in celebration of a case of 24 beer, coincidence I think not…but no matter how you cut it, this weekend is truly a celebration to be remembered. All and all it’s a quiet evening for a Friday we will see what Saturday brings…..

Well Saturday brought a lot more people and even more campfires, the day was nice, still cool but dry which gave way to many projects being carried out around the park. Decks being moved, new deck built, patio stones laid, grass seed and even a little sod going down the park has came to life for sure. Only a few minor issues with the discovery that one electrical outlet was miss wired (like for over ten years) a couple of leaking taps, and a few picnic tables to be removed or added as requested. And security on Saturday had no issues all the usual suspects were were out but some were at different campfires, all and all a pretty quiet evening.

Now Sunday was a whole new day, actually a very special day, today is the first planned event at the park, a live band at 8 this evening. So we set up tables and chairs in the community centre, lit a fire in the fireplace to take the chill off the room. As the day went along we have a visitor from our RV family from the previous year. Susan and Robert Pike from Newfoundland have came to spend a few days with us in their new “Pleasure Way” wide body B van that they had just flown to Ontario to pick-up. The weather is deteriorating quickly and we can see thunderstorms rolling in across the lake, and they brought a deluge of rain. Of course not enough for Laurie not to ask me to barbecue some chops for dinner with Susan and Robert, thank goodness the wind was low so I was able to cook under the awning. Dinner has excellent as we caught up with the Pikes, and we made plans to go over to the community centre to hear the music.

Well the music was great, a band of five playing and singing, doing all the best of classic rock and roll, the crowd was good, a couple of cocktails could have been consumed, and a great evening was had by all, maybe a little too good for a select few whom had to be helped to their rigs….but what an excellent evening to make up for the rain in the afternoon. Richard gave me the evening off and said he had security for the night.

Ah Monday, we had breakfast with Susan and Robert, it had turned cold with the high of only 7 or 46 degrees, and the wind is off the lake for a little extra chill. Today is busy as the stream of vehicles leaving the park starts at about 11 and will continue till about 2 pm, as everyone tries to beat the holiday weekend traffic. Laurie has today off and is going to go the beach in Goderich, Robert is going to have a nap and I am going to do pump outs with the honey wagon, holiday weekend almost every trailer needs to be pumped and a few of the holding tanks in the park need to be pumped after the rain on Sunday along with the holiday weekend, the are at their capacity. We normally collect about 1000 gallons, today with the extra we are close to 4000. The capacity of the septic system is 5000 so about 80% of its limit